Windows Blue shall be named Windows 8.1

Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley heard rumors that Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 update will be called Windows 8.1. The software giant will not focus on the version number though, the top-level branding will be "Windows 8", just like Windows Phone officials talk about "Mango" (Windows Phone 7.5) as part of the Windows Phone 7 family.

The client version of Blue, codenamed Windows Blue, is a refresh of Windows 8. It is expected to be released to manufacturing around August of this year. As I've blogged a few times, Microsoft is planning to position Blue as part of the Windows 8 wave, not as Windows 9.

On Twitter this morning Roman L. (a k a @AngelWZR) tweeted a link to a screen shot, which I've embedded in this post, above, of what appears to be a build of Windows Blue that postdates the one that leaked a week ago. The week-ago leak was build 9364; the new one is 9375. It is labeled in AngelWZR's screen shot as "Windows 8.1 Pro." The original source of this screen shot is Winforum.eu.

In related news, Neowin writes that Microsoft has revamped the search features of Windows 8.1 so users no longer have to pick from either Apps, Settings, or Files:Basically, the new search, which is disabled in the leaked Windows Blue build, does away with having to pick from either Apps, Settings, or Files. Windows 8.1 should allow users to simply type in a search string to find anything inside the OS. The search box will also apparently include a way to receive web-based search results from inside the search charm, presumably from Microsoft's own Bing service by default.

Microsoft to drop Windows RT brandname - 03/29/2013 08:59 AM
DigiTimes writes Microsoft will no longer launch products under its Windows RT brand. Instead, the software giant will merge the product into its next Windows release, codenamed Blue. Although the PC...

Early build of Windows Blue has leaked - 03/25/2013 06:50 PM
Apparently yesterday an early build of Windows Blue was leaked, Build 9364 - a partner version that was originally compiled on March 15th shows some of the changes that will be coming. Build 9364, a ...

Windows 9 launches November 2014 Already - 03/18/2013 12:37 PM
Though unconfirmed it seems that Microsoft is planning to release the next major version of Windows in November 2014. The product will not really be called Windows 9, but Windows Blue instead. Window...

Samsung Exec Bashes Windows 8 - 03/11/2013 06:31 AM
A Samsung executive this week likened Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system to Vista, the criticized OS put out by Redmond several years ago in between its far more successful Windows XP and Win...

#4574543 Posted on: 04/11/2013 11:23 AM
Some (update enthusiasts) may notice there are fewer releases of hotfixes for Windows 8 than there are for Windows 7, taking into account the time that they have been out. In other words, Windows 7 had many more hotfixes at the same point after release as Windows 7. This is not because Windows 8 vastly superior to Windows 7, but because I believe they are saving the hotfixes for 'Windows 8.1'. The other consideration is that Windows 8 is just a big update for Windows 7 on a system level (UI not counting, it's true, don't argue!), so many of the issues are already fixed.

Visually speaking, and I'm not talking about Metro here, apparently Windows 8.1 will be even 'flatter' than Windows 8, gone are things like the non-aero transparent taskbar. Of course I think the UI direction is wrong as I voiced before, but I also believe the less graphically appealing UI is also the wrong direction. A simple interface can be beneficial on a tablet due to the screen size, but graphically neutered isn't a good thing either. They really need to have a pleasant UI on tablets/phones, and have a not-dissimilar but very pleasing UI on desktop.

Anyways, there had been suggestion that there will be a separate service pack for Windows 8, but that wouldn't make sense.

It would also be nice to have separate UAC for desktop and 'Modern' app use. To disable UAC properly in Windows 8 you have to change a specific registry entry, EnableLUA, from 1 to 0. Disabling it in the control panel does not disable UAC properly. Of course, the downside to this is you can't run 'Modern' apps (if you call that a downside, since they are quite inefficient) since you need UAC enabled to run them. This may be because Modern apps are less secure than 'proper' apps? who knows? But since if when you run 'Modern' apps and it says it can't run due to UAC being disabled, it should be easy to set it up so you can have say, full UAC on Metro apps and limited/disabled UAC for other apps. Of course, this would make sense, and going by the choices of Microsoft's design team, I don't see this 'common sense' change being likely.